Sunday, 13 May 2012

Paul & Joe Midsummer Nights Haul and Swatches

Last weekend, I found the Paul & Joe Midsummer Nights summer collection at Fenwick in London. The collection is now also available on ASOS.com and Beautyhabit.com. The packaging for this collection is a refreshing cool mint. The boxes have a lovely watercolor-like effect with swirls of creamy white. I do not usually keep the boxes of my products but these are just too pretty to discard. I was delighted to see this lovely pouch being offered as the gift with a £30 purchase. The same print is featured on the packaging of the limited edition Blotting Paper 2012 that will be released in June. The mirror is the gift with a £50 purchase. The Shimmering Pressed Powder G 001 Midsummer Nights (£22/US$40) is a luminious highlighting powder that is supposed to provide a moonlit, iridescent effect, like moonlight on a fairy's wings. The Face Color G 001 Nymph (£15/US$24) is a sweet shimmery candy pink. Below are swatches of Nymph (extreme left) and the three shades of the Shimmering Pressed Powder. The pressed powder has a soft luminous sheen without any frostiness or chunky glitter. Of the three lipglosses, I picked up Lipgloss G 002 Fairie Kisses and 003 Dream A Little Dream (£15/US$22). Fairie Kisses is a shimmery tranlucent pale green with a green apple and vanilla scent while Dream A Little Dream is a coral pink with a creamy orange and vanilla scent. These are supposed to be flavoured as well but I found the scent to be much more noticeable than the flavour. Both are very sheer and glossy when applied on the lips and last about 2-3 hours on my lips. My camera makes Dream A Little Dream appear more orange-toned than it actually is. The three lipglosses from last summer's L'Horizon Bleu collection are more shimmery in comparison. In the pic below, I'm wearing Dream A Little Dream which add just a sheer tint of pink to my lips. I skipped 001 Love Potion as it was even more sheer than Dream A Little Dream. The Nail Enamel (£10.50/US$14) in 028 Fairie Queen is a holographic flakie that seems to have a thicker formula than the regular P&J polishes. When tapping the bottle against my palm, the two metal balls don't make the usual sound as they move through the thick enamel with a glacial pace. 030 Pixie contains silver glitter bits with a holographic effect in a clear base. The Shimmering Body Lotion G (£24/US$40) is a cooling body lotion with a green floral scent and filled with holographic green glitter. While I like the soft green scent, the glitter bits are quite obvious on the skin. The lotion feels refreshing and dries down to a smooth, non-greasy finish. It is not that hydrating, with alcohol being the second ingredient on the list. After leaving Fenwick, I was surprised to discover that the SA had included a generous bag of samples, literally two sachets of almost every skincare and base makeup product that P&J makes. With each seasonal collection, P&J also issues a newsletter to showcase the collection. It is also a useful reference of the current permanent line-up, which changes quite often. My current collection of P&J face powders.

hi Miaka,I do use the face powders frequently, just that I have so many so it takes me a long time to hit pan on anything. I don't keep makeup untouched just for my collection as they will eventually expire.